The problem of reducing the accumulation of Space Debris in Earth Orbit and the protection of Earth against the impact of threatening asteroids are among the most important topics of aerospace engineering and space technology today. Defunct man-made space objects orbiting the Earth need to be actively removed from crowded orbital regions to prevent impacts with other satellites. Similarly, asteroids that are found to be in collision course with the Earth may need to be actively manipulated to change their trajectory and prevent them from striking our planet. These kinds of space objects manipulations are technologically complex and require similar advances in guidance navigation and control, the development of several types of deflection methods and the management of uncertainties in the deflection process.

The school, as part of the European Community funded STARDUST Training Network will contain a number of talks and seminars devoted to these technological challenges. The school will provide the students with a series of lectures on proximity operations in space, deflection and deorbiting methods and advanced techniques to model and control deflection uncertainties.